Professor Vickie Sutton

Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development
Paul Whitfield Horn Professor, 2010-
Robert H. Bean Professor of Law, 1999-2010
Director, Center for Biodefense, Law and Public Policy
Director, Law and Science Certificate Program and the JD/MS Program in the Life Sciences Texas Institute of Environmental and Human Health
(806) 834-1752
Email: vickie.sutton@ttu.edu

Victoria Sutton is a Paul Whitfield Horn Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Biodefense, Law and Public Policy, the only center at a law school in the U.S. to focus solely on issues of law and biodefense, biosecurity and bioterrorism (www.ttu.edu/biodefense). She established the Law and Science Certificate Program with unanimous support of the faculty, and directs the JD/MS Program in Environmental Toxicology, Biotechnology and Plant and Soil Sciences.

Recently, Prof Sutton was on leave from her faculty position to serve as a political appointee for Pres. George W. Bush, as the Chief Counsel for the Research and Innovative Technology Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C. from September 2005 until January 2007.

Prof. Sutton was a Visiting Lecturer at Yale University in Fall 2004.

Before joining the faculty at Texas Tech, Dr. Sutton served in the Pres. George H. W. Bush Administration as Assistant Director in the White House Science Office and in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In the White House, she was responsible for coordinating science and technology research programs at the cabinet level. After her White House service, Dr. Sutton was Executive Director of the Ronald Reagan Institute for Emergency Medicine where she led the development of the Institute's research initiatives.

At Texas Tech University, Dr. Sutton was awarded the university-wide President's Book Award for her groundbreaking casebook Law and Science: Cases and Materials. She was awarded the New Faculty Teaching Award in 2001, and received the Law School's Distinguished Research Faculty Award in 2002 and 2003. She chaired the University Academic Strategic Planning Task Force and the Texas Tech University System Task Force on Anti-Terrorism and Public Security.

She is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Indian Nation and served as Secretary of the National Native American Bar Association in 2001-2002, and currently serves as a advisory council member of the National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center.

Dr. Sutton has also served on Committees of the Institute of Medicine and National Academy of Engineering.
In 2005, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA, where she received her MPA, and was nominated for the Alumni Achievement Award at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she received her PhD.

She is an appointee to the Governor Rick Perry Texas Council on Key Resources and Critical Infrastructure Council, for expertise in biodefense law.

Dr. Sutton has published numerous books, law review articles, and invited articles on law and science, environmental law, American Indian law, Constitutional law, and law and bioterrorism

Degrees

B.S. in Zoology and B.S. in Animal Science cum laude from North Carolina State University

M.P.A., Old Dominion University

Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas

J.D., magna cum laude from American University, Washington College of Law

Courses

Environmental Law; Law, Science Policy and Scientific Evidence; Native American Law; Law and Biotechnology; Law and Bioterrorism; Constitutional Law; Law, Science and Environment

Selected Symposiums

Prof. Sutton hosted the 13th Annual Global Biosecurity Symposium on Tuesday, April 22, 2014, in the Lanier Center at Texas Tech University School of Law. Click here for the schedule of events and here to view presentations from the symposium.

Books

Law and Biotechnology: Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press, 2007)

Madden v. Lifecord: A Biotechnology Trial (NITA, 2005)

Law and Bioterrorism: Cases and Materials (Carolina Academic Press, 2003)